The Best Jack Ryan Quotes

Mike: You know, I can think of 17 different ways this plan of yours could go wrong.
Jack: Just 17?

Jack: Look, Cathy. I think you like me. Begrudgingly, but I think you do. and I like you. I'm not crazy. There's something here, right?
Cathy: You're not crazy.

Jack: [about her client] What kind of business is he in?
Harriet: On his card? Pretty sure it says something like "military consultant". But you and I would say that he sells toys to naughty children.

CIA: Dr. Ryan. Tough loss for your O's last night.
Jack: Could be worse, Harold. Could be a Mets fan.

Jack: You know, there's a few other bars in DC where you can get a club soda and lime.
James: Uh, yeah. But if I went to one of those other bars, I might meet some friendly strangers, get into some conversation, end up having a good time. Only here, at this bar, can I sit next to a morose motherfucker in a J. Crew button-down. and be depressed all night...

Jack: I can't go to Yemen.
James: Why not?
Jack: I'm an analyst. I don't interrogate people; I write reports.
James: Well, that's gonna make a doozy. Get on the fucking plane.

James: [after shoot-out] Jack, you did good. Real good. For an analyst.
Jack: Fuck you.
James: Now you talk to your boss like that, you'll find yourself in a shitty cubicle writing terrorist finance briefs.
Jack: Promise?

[last lines]
James: If the higher-ups found out about this, they'd put me on a desk or force me into retirement.
Jack: What are you gonna do?
James: I don't know.

Harriet: I've known Dr. Ryan for about three and a half years. We've done a few interagency operations like this.
Jeremy: And what else is she not telling us?
Jack: I ask myself that every day.

Mike: I'm gonna get so much shit for this. Probably get reassigned to Djibouti.
Jack: You'll like Djibouti. It's known for its beaches.

Tony: You think you're the good guy, I'm the bad guy. Maybe you're right. But maybe, if I was born in a nice city in America, like Cincinnati, I could be the good guy too. Geography is destiny, my friend. The world is the kiln, we are the clay.
Jack: Wow, let me write that down.

Jack: I'm Jack.
Cathy: Cathy.
Jack: Cathy. Cathy Mueller? Oh, no. You are Joe's daughter.
Cathy: Have we met?
Jack: Not technically, no. Joe used to have a picture of you behind his desk. I think you'd graduated med school, your hair was... longer then. Listen, what I said about your dad...
Cathy: Being an asshole? Don't worry about it.

Mike: You guys married?
James: Divorced.
Jack: Single.
Mike: ...All right, great talk.

Suleiman: I thought you were an analyst.
Jack: I thought you were a bodyguard. It's you. Suleiman.

Jack: He's hesitating because he's scared.
Layla: Scared. Greer?
Jack: Do you know how badly you have to screw up to go from Chief of Base to the head of T-FAD? He can't make another mistake, he knows that.
Layla: Even if you're right, you don't have the authority to write a démarche. Okay? That's...
Jack: Treasury. I know.

Jack: [after meeting Greer] Anyone know why he got PNG'd back to headquarters?
Tarek: I heard he went all Colonel Kurtz in the desert, started making S.A.D. dip their bullets in pigs' blood so anyone they killed wouldn't go to Paradise.
Jack: Jesus.
Patrick: Shit.

Harriet: What does the London office say?
Jack: I don't know, I haven't asked them yet.
Harriet: Why not? Ah. You're not here with the CIA.
Jack: No. I'm here on vacation...

Jack: I found something you got to see.
James: What am I looking at?
Jack: These are financial transactions through an app called TracEuro. You use your cell phone.
James: Yeah, they were using that in Karachi before I left.
Jack: Every one of these transactions is linked to this account opened a week and a half ago in a bank in Aden by a Saudi import/export company, but the business license of that company is less than a month old. This is a shell.
James: [not seeing the connection] Okay.
Jack: So, six SWIFT transactions have come through in the last eight days. They total over $9 million. Of all the other accounts that I've been monitoring, only two have ever gone above six figures, and barely.
James: Large transactions attract attention. Why go big now and risk popping up on our radar?
Jack: Maybe he doesn't even care about drawing attention, because whatever he's planning, he's ready now. This is it. We got him.
James: He? You mean Suleiman.
Jack: Sir, he's real. I promise you he is real. Don't you think there are people on the seventh floor that would have loved this opportunity twenty years ago the first time they heard the name Bin Laden? All I'm asking is order a démarche, freeze the account.
James: You're not there yet.
Jack: I'm not there yet? S... Sir, 9/11 cost half a million dollars. If he is real, what do you think he can do with twenty times that amount of money? We have to chase this down. Once the money's gone, he's gone. I promise you that.

James: I told you to stand the fuck down, and you went behind my back and froze that account.
Jack: That was Treasury's call.
James: Oh, bullshit! The ink on that démarche may be theirs, but this was your idea.
Jack: Listen, if you're worried about this blowing back on you, don't. Okay? I'll take full responsibility.
James: Oh, is that what you think? That I'm trying to protect my career? Look around. That ship has sailed.

James: You just try to look casual; like you know what you're doing.
Jack: I do know what I'm doing.
James: Good. Tell your face.

James: You saved that kid's life.
Jack: We'll see.

Cathy: Way to really piss off the host.
Jack: Uh... You... you heard that?
Cathy: Just the last part. I especially liked it when he called you a self-righteous Boy Scout.
Jack: Well, at least I'm not an asshole, right?

James: You've been doing this for how long?
Jack: Almost four years.
James: [sarcastic] Oh, almost four years. Holy shit. That's, like... wow. I am impressed.
[seriously]
James: Now, let's say that you're actually right and Suleiman or Casper the Friendly Ghost or whoever the fuck actually exists. What do you think he does when he finds out a state entity has frozen his bank account? He cuts bait and you get nothing!
Jack: How many people you know walk away from $9 million? That money means everything to him.
James: I agree. Which is why we could've sat on that bank, tracked every courier who came and went, and wrapped up the whole god damn network.
Jack: Yeah. Or we could've just watched the front door of the bank while they walked out, pulled off the next 9/11, and we didn't do a thing.
James: Get the fuck out of my office.

Jack: There's a prison camp in the jungle, 15 kilometers north. We lost a guy, and we want him back.
Jost: Is it the one who did this?
[showing his missing finger]
Jack: Focus on the money.

James: That account you froze; S.A.D., Yemeni PSO picked up somebody.
Jack: Suleiman?
James: No. A couple of couriers, they think.
Jack: Wait, you said S.A.D., but I didn't order any surveillance.
James: I did.
Jack: I thought you said I wasn't there yet.
James: You weren't. But that doesn't mean you were wrong.
Jack: Well, how come you couldn't have said that instead of throwing me out of your office?
James: Because I don't know you. And I don't answer to you. Now, S.A.D. and the Yemenis are gonna run the interrogation. But you're the one that knows all this financial shit, so I need you there to make sure they know what questions to ask.

Cathy: Can we order something stronger than red wine?
Jack: Please, god, yes!